Memories of a Nightmare Part Two
by Maya Beebop
Summary: The sequel to the first story:  Jaq is taken to Halloween Town and Jack is kidnapped!  Can Jaq save him in time, or will she remain under Boogie's curse forever?
1. Chapter 1

It was really late. 9:00 to be precise. I was snug in my bed with my long, all black pj pants on along with my Nightmare Before Christmas T-shirt that wonderfully sported Jack on Spiral Hill, along with the title as my own special tribute to the "dream" I had so long ago. I felt beautifully clean since I had just gotten out of the shower and combed my hair until it was straight as a rod.

Since I usually fell asleep to music, I decided to pop in the soundtrack. The first song went by fine, but when the Opening came on, I knew I was in for a weird night.

_"'Twas a long time ago_

When the shadows were long,

The snow sparkled bright

The trees moaning their song…"

I paused the player and looked outside at the wonderland of snow in the forest where I lived. The moon shone full, and cast long, eerie shadows on the sparkling white and the wind whirled through the trees, making them groan and sing with the coat of ice they wore. A chill went down my spine as I let it play once more.

_"From a place far away_

Driven by love

A creature waited patiently

For the human above…"

I wondered. That, theoretically, would mean there was something below me, if I was the human. But how far below? Basement? First floor? _Under my bed?!_

_"Now you've probably wondered_

Where this creature's come from…"

I spoke the last two lines in unison with the CD.

"If you haven't, I'd say

It was time you begun…"

Suddenly, a bony, four-fingered hand reached up from under my bed and grabbed my ankle! It started pulling with superhuman strength and I was on the floor, being sucked under!

I screamed for all I was worth, but since I was home alone, I hadn't a hope to be saved. I clawed at the rug, but to no avail. I felt myself go into the cold recesses under the bed, and I blanked out. Wisps of music from "This Is Halloween" floated through my head.


	2. Chapter 2

I awoke lying against a rock of some sort. A rock wall. I turned around and saw it was a tombstone.

"Here we go again…" I muttered, struggling to my feet. I was still in my pajamas, but there was something funny about them. They seemed to be a bit tighter. And I KNEW my shirt had shrunk. It wasn't too small, but now it fit me like a regular shirt. And the sleeves had gotten longer. The only things that hadn't changed were my black, knee-high socks. They still fit me fine.

"Where is he? He better have a damn good excuse for dragging me out of my bedroom in the middle of the night, scaring the living daylights out of me…" I stalked into town. By now, the townspeople knew how freaky I was (probably by word-of-Jack's mouth) and they kept their distance from the "Pumpkin Queen" (also by Jack's mouth).

Fuming, I banged on the door of his mansion, ignoring the bell-chain. I was mad, and I wanted him to know it, so I took out my anger on the wood. When he didn't come, I bellowed.

"JACK! Get down here!"

"He's not home." I turned the band was down at the gate.

"Well, where is he?" I demanded.

"Maybe he went back to Christmas Town," the big one offered.

"Try the cemetery," the sax player told me.

I sighed. "If he's not here, then who in all the hells pulled me through?"

They gulped and looked at one another nervously.

"The Shadow. He probably became Jack and pulled you here to take your place. Now he's where ever you were, in your form, and he's going to be you."

I looked towards the speaker. Sally. She was in the doorway, looking at me. Zero bounded through and attacked me with joyful yips and licks.

"Happy to see you too, buddy. Where's Jack?" I asked, fighting him off.

Zero barked and started for Town Hall. I had wondered why the town was so empty.

We entered in the midst of a heated discussion. From what I could tell, it was about the Shadow. I noticed that my skin had darkened a shade or two before looking up. There was Jack Skellington himself, surrounded by the Mayor and various other members of Halloween Town.

Zero barked and made for his master. Jack caught him and laughed.

"Hey boy. Who's here?" Zero looked toward me and yipped. Jack glanced up and almost dropped his jaw at the sight of me. 

"J-J-Jaq?! What are _you_ doing here?"

"Something pulled me in from under my bed. I believe it's you're 'Shadow'," I stated. "Anyway, I'm here now!" I grinned.

He ran over. "Forgive me for not being formal, but I'm glad to see you!" He picked me up in a bear hug. I felt my closer get a bit closer to me.

"Glad to see you too…" I struggled. I gave him a quick hug and he let me down.

"So what's this Shadow thing? And why am I here?" I asked.

His face fell.

"The Shadow, we believe, is what kept Oogie Boogie together and yapping. His 'soul', so-to-speak. Somehow it survived and can now change shape, but it retains the same voice. And attitude."

I looked at him. "So, what effects can it have?"

"Well, he's been 'switching places' with anyone he can. He took the Behemoth, so it looked like the bag of bugs and we attacked him without knowing. He's still alright, but the big guy's in bad shape. It did the same to the Creature Lady and both witches. It seems he favors female victims."

I gulped. "W-what happens if the Shadow gets into the real world?"

He tapped his chin with a thoughtful expression. "Well, I expect it and whomever it catches will switch immediate forms. Which would mean…" He stopped.

"That means _he_ is now _me_, and _I'm_ going to be a- a-…"

"Shadow." We both said it together.

As if summoned by a password, my black clothing sucked at me. I felt strange, lightheaded. Suddenly, it was as if I was wearing nothing at all! I looked down. I had something on but didn't feel it. My whole body was black, including my hands and feet, although my feet had some sort of covering on. My socks, I expect.

There was a mirror nearby. Amid gasps of surprise, I looked into it. My face and hair were black. Pitch black. My eyes, no longer white and brown, glowed a solid purple. I turned away. Jack pointed wordlessly at my arm.

There was a bit of cloth left. I reached for it, but it sank into my skin!


	3. Chapter 3

It must have been too much for me, because the next thing I remember is waking up in Jack's bed. But I felt really strange. Flat, really. I looked down. I was nothing more than a shadow on the covers!

I tried to get up. Amazingly, I materialized and became solid. Jack rose from a chair nearby and came over to me. I saw he had on a sad countenance.

"So what now? Is it reversible?" I asked hopefully.

He shook his head grimly. "Not as long as Oogie's in the real world, masquerading as you. We need him _here_ to switch you back."

"So I'm _stuck_ like this?!" I demanded.

"It would seem so. But let's look on the bright side for now. While we're working on catching him, you get to be like one of us! And Halloween's only a few days away…if all else fails, you can celebrate with us! We've never had a materializing shadow before!"

I sighed. Obviously he didn't see the dilemma here. If Oogie was loose in the real world and can take the shape of anyone he wants, then God knows how long (or soon) it would be before the world came crashing to ground zero. Think about it. Chaos. Panic. Disorder. We had to catch him.

On the other hand, what had that world ever done for me? I'd much rather live here. Being a shadow was fun! And I'd always dreamed of being in the parade.

We decided to wait. That was all we could do. The Mayor and Co. were keeping an eye out for him, and when night came I was out and about. I scared crap and crap alike out of anyone I found after dark. I'd sneak up behind them as a shadow, then materialize and scream. They'd leap, shriek, and run as I cackled. Strange how it sounded a lot more like Jack's laugh nowadays.

I heard a call behind me. Jack summoning the Shadow Queen, of course. I decided to play a trick on old Jack. Concentrating, I morphed and changed my shape into an all-black version of the Pumpkin King himself. Placing myself in shadow form, I crept into his shadow. Then, as he watched, I raised up and materialized as I laughed maniacally.

He was freaked!

I dropped the shape and rolled on the ground, laughing. He was a little peeved, but hey, I was Jaq, after all, and he couldn't stay mad at me. He led me to Town Hall and began to explain.

"We think we've found him. It seems he can't get out of your body. See, when he wants to change, he abandons the body and becomes a shadow again. But since you're in different realities, he's stuck. He'll have to come back here. Or spend the rest of his existence in a girl's body that's stopped aging because of him." He grinned.

I laughed. "It seems he's created his own stalemate."

"It would seem so," one of the vampires added.

I stopped laughing, but I was still chuckling when I asked, "So what do we do now?"

"We wait for him to show up," Jack stated. 

We headed home and I got comfortable on the couch to sleep under a knit blanket with a sewn spider on it. My dreams were haunted by shadows and hearty, eerie laughter. I saw visions of Oogie's mansion, and those nasty trick-or-treaters tying me up.


	4. Chapter 4

I awoke from the nightmare with a cold sweat. I looked around . It was dark and fluorescent lights blazed around me. _Fluorescent lights?! _

Uh oh.

Cackling echoed around me as a figure came out of the darkness in front of me.

It was me.

Technically, it was Oogie Boogie in my body. He laughed maniacally as I struggled to get free. No luck. I was bound.

"Too bad your little plans backfired to catch me. I sick of this body. Since you've been in our world before, you were in tune to the 'waves', shall we say. It was easy to link Halloween Town to you and your bedroom. But I miscalculated and I didn't realize I'd be _stuck_ in here. So if it's alright with _you_, I'll just switch us around again. Then I'll have a bit of fun with you." He cackled and reached for me.

Under stress, your subconscious will work for you when nothing else will. I became a shadow in the midst of pure mortal terror and ran. I could hear Oogie yowling in rage. Before escaping, I heard him bellow, "I didn't expect you'd learn how to use those powers so quickly! But I still have one wild card left to play, Miss Pumpkin Queen!"

I was still frightened after I got out. I hadn't felt so scared since I was a kid and first rode the Haunted Mansion. Rushing back to Jack's mansion, I slipped under the door and shook him awake.

"Whuh? What's going on?" He inquired sleepily. The sun was rising.

"Boogie's back, Jack! He's here, in his hideout, in my body! And Lock, Shock, and Barrel are over there with him. They kidnapped me and Oogie tried to take his shadow-form back. But I dematerialized and escaped."

He was wide-awake now. Scribbling a note, he apologized to Sally for leaving so early and we raced to Town Hall.

Jack woke the Mayor and filled him in. The blue face worried over what they were to do. Jack held my shoulders and addressed me seriously.

"Jaq, I've dealt with him before. You stay here and keep this-…" He paused and looked over at the bumbling council. "-_Fiasco_ under control." He stood straight up very heroically. Turning with a grim smile, he ran out.

We waited all day for his return, and night fell. Finally, the entire population in Town Hall, I addressed them.

"That's it. I'm not going to sit around and wait for Jack anymore. For all we know, he could be hurt…or _worse_." I paused, half for effect and half out of fear.

"I'll be back, with Jack and Boogie in tow." I walked out in the middle of applause and skewed mumblings and whispers. Reaching the cobbled streets, I became a shadow and headed for Oogie Boogie's lair.


	5. Chapter 5

I climbed down the same cage-chain that Jack had, so long ago. Reaching the end, I heard cackling, but who it was, I didn't know. My question was answered shortly.

"So, Jack. Don't feel bad, this time I've got nothin' against you. You're just bait. A pawn, I might say, in my chess game."

I heard indistinguishable noises that sounded muffled. Jack was gagged, I'll bet.

"And when your little friend comes to rescue you, it'll be-…"

"Checkmate!" I cried, leaping through the barred window and perching on an outcrop of rock in Oogie's underground Casino Room.

Jack was bound and, yes, gagged on a raised portion of the roulette wheel floor. A running buzz saw was inches from his face. Oogie was standing next to him, ready to push the saw just a bit forward and tear Jack's head to pieces. He grinned and Jack looked at me in innocence. For the first time I'll ever remember, I saw he was scared. Frightened. The King of Halloween was ready to collapse in fear and Oogie was loving it.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel stood nearby. They held some kind of strange, macabre apparatus consisting of a headpiece, two sets of manacles, and a long electrical cord.

Oogie laughed. "Well, here's your choice. Either you allow my henchmen to assist you into that machine so we can switch again, or Jack's head will be sawdust! Take your pick, Madame."

He grinned. "And I don't regret to inform you that the process will be extremely painful this time around."

I winced. "Will you let Jack go?"

"Of course, miss Jaq. I am a spirit of my word. We make a deal, I hold up my end." He smiled reassuringly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack, vigorously shaking his head in a very negative fashion, signaling me not to agree. But I never broke eye contact with myself. With Oogie Boogie.

I sighed and sat down in a chair he gestured to, to Jack's dismay. Lock snapped the headpiece on me with a snicker. I growled at him and he jumped back in fright.

"Get on with it!" Oogie commanded them.

Shock came forward and put the manacles on my wrists and ankles while Barrel connected everything with the cable to an evil-looking metal contraption nearby.

Oogie grinned and signaled. Lock giggled and flipped the switch.

What followed was probably the most painful ordeal of my existence. Sucking, pushing, pins, needles, pinching, pressure, stinging. You name it, I felt it. I screamed like I was possessed by the devil. My glowing purple eyes shone beams of light like beacons into the darkness. I may as well have been a lighthouse for all they shone.

But rather than guffaw in joy, Oogie scowled in disappointment.

"Why isn't it working?! If anything, she'd getting _more_ defiant!"

"Dunno, Oogie. Maybe her soul got attached to the form, or something like that," Shock shouted over my screams.

"I've heard about that. When a soul is put in its true form or the form it belongs in, it's supposed to fuse together and can't be removed. Curse it! Now I'll never get my shadow form back! I'll just take care of BOTH of you now and have a little fun!" Boogie grinned.


	6. Chapter 6

Jack shouted obscenities from behind his gag so we couldn't understand what he was saying. But we didn't need to.

I must have tapped into some sort of "spirit energy", because the apparatus shattered around me and I felt a wave of energy reverberate around the room as I screamed in determination.

Oogie fell over and Jack shut his eyes tight. The buzz saw had long since faltered and stopped spinning. The kids had disappeared.

I floated in the air, suspended by sheer energy. Teeth bared, I bellowed at the fallen foe.

"HOW _DARE_ YOU MAKE SPORT OF ME AND MY FRIENDS!!!" A bright purple light filled the room and Oogie Boogie screamed his last as we were blinded by the light and deafened by the violent shaking of the cavern.

Jack shook himself free after the blast subsided. I hovered, exhausted, for a moment and watched Oogie and my body dissipate into nothingness. Then, I fell to earth, unconscious.


	7. Chapter 7

I blinked. I was lying in the cemetery again, this time in the arms of a stone gargoyle on the top of the tallest headstone. The moon was full. It was All Hallows Eve.

I leaned up into a sitting position. Jack sat at the foot of the stone, waiting for me. I smiled softly at him as he looked up. He returned it and I jumped down.

"So…what happened to my body?" I asked after a long hug.

"Well, it disappeared with Oogie's spirit, so I guess you're stuck this way." He seemed sad…but for me or for him I was never able to tell.

After a few minutes of silent thought, I added, "You know, I really don't mind. If Oogie was right, then this was the form I was meant to have."

We looked at each other.

"How did you use so much energy at once?" he asked, amazed and bewildered.

_Anime television shows_, I thought.

"I don't know, Jack. I really don't know. But if I have to stay like this forever, I might as well make use of it. How about that Halloween celebration?" I grinned at him.

He was happily shocked. "Y-you still want to be in it?"

"Well why wouldn't I? It's been my dream since I first saw the movie." I smiled and he escorted me into town.

To make a long story short, the pageant ended beautifully. I stayed in Jack's shadow until he rose out of the fountain, which was when I materialized in his form and became a black reflection of sorts. The townspeople were startled and stood in shock until I dropped the form and grinned. But the evening had more surprises awaiting them…and me.

After the usual prizes were distributed, the mayor held the microphone and began. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special award tonight. One that has only been presented once before in its category. Will we please give a tremendous hand to Jaq Shadow, our official Pumpkin Queen!"

The applause was thunderous. I walked up to the platform in a daze and accepted the medal (which was in the shape of a Jack-O-Lantern). I waved to the congregation amidst cheers and clapping.

"Tonight was amazing," I commented to Jack as we stood on Spiral Hill.

"Pumpkin Queen… _That's_ pretty amazing," he added.

"So…do you think the hill will work for me this time?" I asked, holding his hand.

"I think it will most certainly uncurl for its second monarch." He smiled.

Our arms wrapped around each other's backs and I felt the hill buckle and roll underneath our feet as we walked forward.


End file.
